Dick Sutphen's​Master of Life Newsletter

“Aliveness” is real enjoyment in doing what you do--the excitement and exhilaration that makes you feel glad to be alive--the joy, stimulation and pleasure that makes life worth living.To build my case for aliveness and challenge, I need to explain that you are energy and energy functions as a yin/yang balance, resulting in tension between opposites. Yin is negative and yang is positive. We all contain dual aspects: love/hate, harmony/chaos, good/evil.And we must express our yin/yang duality because this tension is necessary for structure to exist. Human beings are energy structures. Without tension you don’t exist. Thus there is yin balance in your life (common examples of yin expression: self-denial, arguing and fighting, carrying grudges, excessive hard work, gambling, dangerous activities, drugs, drinking, having affairs, and illness.)But negative (yin) tension can be replaced with positive challenge. And nothing generates aliveness like challenge. Positive challenge usually amounts to wise risking. So the idea is to live life more positively (thus spiritually) by living a little more dangerously.Let’s take this another step: challenge generates intensity. To know the ultimate ecstasy--the ultimate aliveness, do what you do to the optimum, with focused intensity. Don’t hold back. Don’t remain in the safety zone. Allow yourself to be totally absorbed by what you’re doing. In-tensity is a flaming focus of desire. The opposite would be ex-tensity, meaning you are scattered--fragmented with dozens of desires. Once you’re focusing upon challenge in your life, you’ll probably begin living from one peak of achievement to another peak. The higher you rise, the higher the peaks available to you.The Zen idea is to disappear into an activity. If you dance, dance with such intensity the dancer disappears--a transformation takes place and only the dance remains. You and the act become one. When I am writing, I seek to merge into the words, allowing time to disappear and attain a state where the writing and I become one.Back to yin/yang balance. As a natural expression of the law of opposite, that which is totally successful tends to destroy itself. As an example, history shows that a country at it’s peak, if no longer opposed, will fragment and collapse shortly thereafter. All too often, marriages fail when the union no longer offers challenges. The honest successful man may become corrupt. Even spiritual seekers who believe they have all the answers, will often fall off the spiritual wagon, so to speak, so they have the challenge of regaining their faith.So I suggest that you ask yourself some valuable questions. 1. Career: Do you experience aliveness in your career? Is there any real challenge in your career? Are you growing in your career? 2. Relationship: Do you experience aliveness in your primary relationship? Is there still a challenge in your relationship? Are you growing in your relationship? 3. Sex life: Do you experience aliveness in your sex life? Is there any real challenge in your sex life? Are you repressing your sexual desires in any way? Okay ... now go on and ask your own questions about your spirituality, your friendships, relationships to family, your sports activities, and any other life area that might be lacking in aliveness.If you answered “no” to any of the questions, you’re stagnating or not living up to your full potential for a fulfilling life in the area of exploration. So the next question is, what changes can you make to generate aliveness in that area of your life?As an example: If your relationship is stagnating, what new challenge can you introduce to make it exciting again? Examples: A joint hobby or activity (take up sailing), A side business built upon your shared abilities (an online company you run together in your spare time), New sexual titillation (go on a vacation to a sexy resort, or ...)?Maybe it is time to consider living dangerously. Maybe it’s time to reject the commands of power, the dictates of society and public opinion, and to stop worrying about what other people think about what you do. You have the power and ability to create your own reality--to change what isn’t working and to manifest what you desire.